Inflation has been called “the cruelest tax,” because it falls heaviest on the poor. If that is the case, then the Biden administration is the cruelest administration in decades.
Inflation rose by 6.2% in October, the highest level since November 1990. But the Biden administration, and its enablers in the legacy media, have callously dismissed the suffering of the American people. At times, they have literally laughed at the pain of U.S. citizens, while promising to make Border Patrol agents “pay” for repulsing Haitian illegal immigrants. As the rising prices of everyday necessities squeeze Americans’ wallets, the Left has gaslighted Americans about the problem, told us we should be grateful for Biden’s massive deficit spending, and insisted nobody is worried about surging costs except “rich people flipping their s***.”
The Biden administration’s indifference, like everything else, becomes clearer in light of the holidays. Economists across the political spectrum agree: Inflation will make family gatherings costlier than ever. “Your Thanksgiving Day meal is going to cost about 8% more, nearly twice the increase in average weekly earnings since a year ago,” reported the conservative Heritage Foundation. The liberal New York Times agreed, “Thanksgiving 2021 could be the most expensive meal in the history of the holiday.”
Rising grocery costs are the worst aspect of inflation because they threaten the marginal’s survival. CBS News reported that spiking costs have created a “growing struggle to feed families in need.” But the bruising prices produced by inflation are not restricted to food. Even the Dollar Tree has announced that it will raise the price of most items to $1.25 by March 2022. No wonder a recent CBS News/YouGov poll found that only 4% of Americans think things are going “very well.”
With food shortages, surging prices, and a supply chain crisis, CBS News reports on "the growing struggle to feed families in need." pic.twitter.com/BnIAnrVxgV
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 9, 2021
“From the grocery store to the gas pump, Americans know the inflation tax is real and D.C. can no longer ignore the economic pain Americans feel every day,” said Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) earlier this month.
As usual, when Joe Manchin speaks common sense, the Biden administration begs to differ. Here are a few of the Left’s worst examples of dismissive and demeaning rhetoric on inflation:
1. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki: It’s only a dollar!
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki apparently believes Americans should not worry about the most expensive Thanksgiving meal in history because the cost will only rise by a dollar a turkey. At Monday’s White House press briefing, Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked, “What message does it send to the middle-class Americans President Biden says that he’s trying to help, who are struggling this week to cover the cost of the most expensive Thanksgiving ever, that the president is going to take a few days off at a billionaire’s compound in Nantucket?”
“I don’t know if you’ve cooked a turkey before, but a 20-pound turkey is a pretty big turkey, I think we can all agree. They’re about one dollar more. So, not to minimize that — any increase in prices is something the president is concerned about,” responded Jen Psaki. “But I just want to be clear that there are abundance of turkeys available. They’re about one dollar more for a 20-pound bird, which is a huge bird if you’re feeding a very big family.”
Downplaying the one-dollar increase in the cost of just one item in the Thanksgiving meal seems especially hardhearted coming from an administration that bragged on Twitter about saving Americans 16 cents on their July 4 cookout.
2. MSNBC’s Joy Reid: Where’s your gratitude for your $2,000 stimulus check?
MSNBC’s Joy Reid implied that Americans who complain about the Biden administration must lack gratitude for the $2,000 stimulus checks they received (which were actually $1,400). She then asked whether the American people’s views even “matter.” Reid ranted on November 15:
There’s also a lot of Americans who, despite having gotten the shots and checks, are still telling pollsters that he’s accomplished nothing, or almost nothing, which I find amazing. I guess they spent the whole $2,000. Now they’re not happy anymore. But does that matter?
The next day, Reid continued, minimizing the highest inflation since the New Kids on the Block topped the charts as a mere “buzzword” coined by political operatives. “Republicans jump on the inflation buzzword bandwagon, ignoring all the signs of America’s economic comeback,” Reid said on Tuesday, November 16. “Republicans are seizing on inflation and blaming Joe Biden for it personally, which is a fun twist, after Republicans and Trump maxed out the national credit card on tax cuts for the super-rich and a partial wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for.” She concluded that “what [Republicans] say has nothing to do with reality, because they want to get back in power.”
3. New York Times writer Sarah Jeong: “Rich people flipping their s***”
New York Times editorial writer Sarah Jeong decided to engage in an erroneous piece of class warfare. She wrote last Wednesday that “all the stuff you see about inflation in the news is driven by rich people flipping their [s***] because their parasitic assets aren’t doing as well as they’d like.” She closed the tweet “jmt,” which is short for “just my thoughts.”
all the stuff you see about inflation in the news is driven by rich people flipping their shit because their parasitic assets aren’t doing as well as they’d like and they’re scared that unemployment benefits + stimmy checks + 15 minimum wage + labor shortage is why ~jmt~
— sarah jeong (@sarahjeong) November 17, 2021
In reality, inflation naturally hits the poor and middle class harder than the wealthy, since poorer people have fewer dollars to spend in the first place. The Biden administration has proven no exception, as The Hill reported:
“The costs for low-wage households to cover their commuting costs, grocery bills and rents are eating into the jump they have seen in wages,” wrote Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, in a Wednesday analysis. “The public is angry.”
4. White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain: Inflation is a First World problem
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain also buys the logically inverted idea that inflation hits wealthy Americans the hardest. Klain waded into the topic after seeing a message on Twitter from former President Barack Obama’s economic adviser Jason Furman. “Most of the economic problems we’re facing (inflation, supply chains, etc.) are high-class problems,” Furman wrote. “We wouldn’t have had them if the unemployment rate was still 10 percent. We would instead have had a much worse problem.” On October 13, Klain simply retweeted Furman with the curt statement, “This.”
This 👇👇 https://t.co/ymh53nEHAg
— Ronald Klain (@WHCOS) October 14, 2021
Unfortunately, “This” is false.
5. MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle: Ackshually, things are pretty great
As The Daily Wire reported, on November 14, MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle told Willie Geist:
“The dirty little secret here, Willie, while nobody likes to pay more, on average we have the money to do so. Household savings hit a record high over the pandemic,” Ruhle said, later adding, “While the stock market isn’t the economy, you have over half of American households with some investment in the markets and the markets have hit record highs.”
Inflation airhead: NBC's Stephanie Ruhle says the "dirty little secret" of people complaining about paying higher prices for food and fuel for their homes is they can afford it just fine. According to her, people should have been saving during the pandemic and stocks look good. pic.twitter.com/RQ90focIXJ
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) November 14, 2021
Ruhle should know that “inflation destroys savings,” as the late economist Bettina Bien Greaves of FEE explained.
6. President Joe Biden: You’re welcome, America.
As Americans wearily eyed their paychecks falling beneath the shadow of their rising bills, President Joe Biden said his policies have done a phenomenal job improving their finances.
“Things are getting better for American workers: higher wages, better benefits, more flexible schedules. Balance sheets for American families are better,” he said. “… [F]amilies have more money in their pockets today than before the pandemic hit. That’s even after accounting for inflation,” he said on Monday, November 22. “It’s a testament to the economic policies we fought so hard to pass and to put in place, especially the American Rescue Plan.”
President Biden: "America is the only major economy — the only one in the world — where the economy is bigger today, and families have more money in their pockets today, than before the pandemic hit. That's even after accounting for inflation." https://t.co/Nj065CIsxp pic.twitter.com/wGtpgz5Fll
— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 22, 2021
Biden made his statements on November 22, the 58th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. And if JFK had heard the second Catholic president make this statement, he would have died again of shock.
Economists agree that wages are not keeping pace with inflation, which has been worsened by politicians on both sides of the aisle who have spent $6.4 trillion in “COVID relief” over the last year. Rakesh Kochhar, senior researcher at Pew Research Center, wrote that “inflation has ticked up recently, with consumer prices registering an increase of 4.8% in the second quarter of 2021 compared with the second quarter of 2020. Thus, the earnings of workers have eroded in recent months.” (Emphasis added.) Fortune magazine also reported, “Average hourly wages rose 4.6% in September from a year earlier, a healthy increase, but not enough to keep up with inflation.”
“[T]he plain truth is that our political leaders have brought on inflation by their own money and fiscal policies. They are promising to fight with their right hand the conditions brought on with their left,” wrote economist Henry Hazlitt in his book “What You Should Know About Inflation,” published in 1960.
At least in 1960, politicians didn’t tell us we should be thankful that their free-spending ways ruined our Thanksgiving.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.